


Timid devotion

by chacusha



Category: Bravely Default (Video Game) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Character Study, Gen, one-sided Alternis/Edea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 19:33:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14503992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chacusha/pseuds/chacusha
Summary: "The ache of being so close to being so close to Edea kept Alternis awake at night." Just a short character study of how the Edea/Ringabel relationship makes Alternis feel, set shortly after the events of Bravely Default.





	Timid devotion

**Author's Note:**

> Basically, I have too many Alternis feels and needed a place to write them up. Not sure if people have already done works like this before (I'm coming to this fandom super late). Hope you enjoy!

The fourth Warrior of Light was gone from this world even before its people had had time to acknowledge and celebrate his deeds. It soon became apparent to Alternis that, of the remaining Warriors of Light, Edea was most deeply hurt by his decision to leave. The girl tried to hide her upset, continuing on with life as usual, but her overcompensation gave her feelings away -- laughter came too loudly and energetically. Work was too enthusiastically taken on. And then there was the way she deflected conversations away from any non-essential discussions of Ringabel. She was, by all appearances, heartbroken.

To the contrary, Alternis was somewhat relieved to hear that Ringabel had gone back to his own world. It had been an eerie experience, encountering someone who had borne his face. Alternis's immediate thought was that the fourth member of the vestal's party was some dark creation of the cryst-fairy Airy, created to throw off his guard, to mock him, maybe even cause him to lose conviction in the task he had been entrusted with. The thought had also crossed his mind that this was how the fairy had managed to cause Edea to turn against the Duchy, by somehow leveraging the connection he and Edea had.

It was not until he was recovering from his wounds that he recalled what the Lord Marshal had told him about the crystals -- that they had the ability to bridge parallel worlds. In that case, Ringabel may not have been a creation of the cryst-fairy at all but a version of himself from another world. When Edea had later explained to him who Ringabel was, confirming this theory, Alternis wasn't sure what to think. If Ringabel was not the cryst-fairy's trick but simply _him_ from another world...

The ache of being so close to being so close to Edea kept Alternis awake at night. He’d always suspected Edea would never come to see him the way he saw her. But so long as he never confessed his feelings, he could delay the point of time when he knew for sure what her feelings were and if they might ever change. Always delaying the moment of confession was how he allowed himself to prolong his idle hopes that Edea might come to see him as more than a friend, and more than an adopted brother.

He had unfortunately ruined all that with his foolish outburst during the battle at the pillar of light. In the heat of battle, he had revealed to Edea his feelings for her, and in so doing, forced her into revealing her feelings toward him... or, more accurately, the lack thereof. (To be fair to his past self, there had been a very high chance that either he or Edea would not make it out of that fight alive, in which case, confessing was not an _entirely_ inappropriate action. But now he and Edea were both very much alive, and Alternis was half-tempted to fling himself off an airship again.)

If not for Ringabel, Alternis could have accepted the disappointment and crushed hopes, maybe even moved on in time. But the existence of Ringabel -- of a version of him who _had_ won the love of Edea -- had the effect of dampening his hope while causing it to burn even stronger.

After all, what separated him and Ringabel? Were they not the same?

...Were they not completely and utterly different?

Ringabel was a path not traveled -- what if Alternis had given up everything in order to follow Edea wherever her path led her? Abandoned the Duchy, abandoned duty, shed Dark Knight asterisk and armor alike to live as an ordinary man and to protect her wherever she went... What if he regretted the absolute trust he had placed in the Grand Marshal's ideals... even abandoned Braev Lee, the man himself, like a father to him, whose eyes filled with pain as he sanctioned the execution of his own daughter... What if he had flung it all away to be free as the wind?

Alternis laughed, bitter. It _would_ take nothing less than a total loss of memory for him to do such a thing. Loyalty and duty were everything to a man such as him. The only excuse -- in his mind -- for abandoning one's duty so shamelessly was to be utterly oblivious of its existence... But more than that, fulfilling the ideals of Braev Lee was the only thing a man like Alternis had to live for. He clung to those ideals with the desperation of a man trying to avoid death. To give up his duty would have required a courage and an independent faith in himself that Alternis was certain that he didn't have.

And yet, to give up everything to be by Edea's side... to bask in her angelic smile every day... to travel the world together as companions, as comrades... Alternis couldn't deny how tempting such an undertaking would have been. How he envied Ringabel to be so close to Edea at all times, while he -- Alternis Dim -- was stuck halfway across the world, anxiously sifting through piles of paperwork and reports for some news of the crystals, the vestal, or Edea.

And yet, the thought of traveling with Edea without armor or rank was a kind of intimacy that Alternis found... terrifying. The least pleasant part of imagining what it would be like to accompany her as his mirror-self had was imagining what it would be like for Edea to see Alternis's face, his true face. Every thought, every emotion that he felt would be written there for her to see. And would she like what she saw? The thought made him squirm in discomfort. He was a coward, and it wasn't just the courage to abandon duty that he lacked but also the courage to be seen for what he was. The courage of confession.

Worse than the differences in the paths that had been walked, though, were the differences in personality. It wasn't long before Alternis was made aware that such differences existed. Although Edea was tight-lipped when it came to any topic related to Ringabel, the wind vestal had occasionally remarked on how little resemblance Alternis and Ringabel bore to each other. When asked to elaborate, the vestal had mumbled quietly that Ringabel had been noticeably more cheerful, outgoing, and (a pause as if choosing the word carefully) playful. Inquiring about Ringabel in Caldisla, Ancheim, Florem, and Eisenberg had confirmed the vestal's words and further elaborated on them -- the version of him from another world was a shameless flirt. Strangely, women were as likely to report this fact with bashful smiles and fond tones ("a charming, gallant man of romance") as they were to report it with annoyance ("a frivolous philanderer who hit on anything that moved").

Even though Alternis couldn't quite see the appeal of someone who was so flirtatious, he could admit that some of the nearby traits could be attractive -- a light-hearted disposition, a sense of humor, a proclivity toward and ease in giving compliments. It was not that Alternis completely lacked these traits... but they did not come easily to him. He could not blame Edea for preferring someone more capable of openly appreciating her finer traits and doing them justice. In some ways, the idea of Edea finding such a man gave Alternis comfort.

And yet, hope sprung eternal: surely Alternis and Ringabel had traits in common -- values, personality traits, mannerisms. Did he dare to hope that it was those traits they _shared_ that had drawn Edea to Ringabel? That it was no coincidence that Edea had journeyed with another world's Alternis and fallen in love along the way?

Or was it the case that the Alternis of every of the innumerable parallel worlds was an unloved wretch? Was the trick that fate was playing not in Alternis's being connected to Edea in a bond that transcended worlds but in his being altered just enough to be loved by her in one single world?

If that was the way it was, then so be it. It changed his feelings not. Alternis's love for Edea, he realized, was like his devotion to Braev: it needn’t be reciprocated to give his life purpose and focus, to give him comfort, to make him feel part of something better than himself. All pain was sweet in its own way, and the pain of unrequited love was no exception.

**Author's Note:**

> By the way, the title is kind of a play on "bravely default". Feedback and people to share Alternis feels with are appreciated. <3


End file.
